Pardee Keynote Symposia

Highlights

P1. Creating Citizen Scientists: Needs and Opportunities to Engage Students and the Public in the Process of Science

Co-sponsored by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers and the U.S. Geological Survey

Anne E. Egger, Robert W. Ridky

Imagine a scientifically literate society: a society in which students are engaged in scientific investigations to learn the process of science, a society in which scientists involve students and the public in research instead of just telling them about science, a society in which all citizens can be actively engaged in the scientific process and politicians can include science as a factor in their decisions. Sound utopian? Speakers in this session discuss why we need that society and how we might begin to build it, focusing on the unique role that the earth sciences can play.